Order of the Judge for preliminary hearing of the Court of Torino No. 262 of 24 July 2015

The case concerned the admissibility of instituting a proceeding for manslaughter against an executive of the “Eternit” company, who had been already prosecuted for the crime of intentional omission of precautions against accidents at work aggravated by the death of workers (Article 437.2 of penal code), and acquitted from this offense due to statutory limitations. The illicit conduct at the origin of the second proceeding was the same, that is the fact that the accused had not taken such measures as it was necessary to reduce the dangers of exposure to asbestos dust, which had later caused 258 casualties among the workers, their family members, and other persons living close the industrial plants. According to the Judge of the preliminary hearing of the Court in Torino, the case raised a question concerning the compatibility of Article 649 of the code of criminal procedure (ne bis in idem) with respect to Article 117.1 of Constitution in conjunction with Article 4 of the 7th Protocol to the ECHR as interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights. Italian legislation as constantly interpreted by the Supreme Court of Cassation allows to prosecute twice a person for a same fact, if latter falls within the scope of more than one crimes set out in the code (so-called “concurrent offenses”). This circumstance has seemed to the Judge totally inconsistent with many decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (including on the case Grande Stevens of 2014), from which it emerges a meaning of the bis in idem much broader than the meaning under Italian legislation and the relevant case law.